


Fine

by avulle



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Crack, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-29
Updated: 2015-08-29
Packaged: 2018-04-17 22:30:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4683713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avulle/pseuds/avulle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On a bench by the beach, Pearl and Mayor Bill Dewey have what could generously be considered a moment.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fine

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was originally intended to be me trying to write a Pewey story just prove I could by taking their single commonality (their love for their sons), and growing on that.
> 
> That however, was not what this fic wanted to be. Instead we got... whatever this is.

 "Hello, Mayor Dewey."

The small man sniffles, glances up.

"H-Hello," he wipes at his nose, "Pearl."

They stare at each other for a moment of awkward silence before Pearl walks around the bench and carefully folds herself down onto it.

"Have you seen the new statue?" he finally asks, voice cracking slightly. "It was quite the undertaking. It created many jobs for our beautiful city."

Pearl looks at him, and then looks out at the beach.

"Yes," she finally says, hands folded tightly in her lap.

She pauses, folds and unfolds her legs.

"Yes," she repeats. "Yes, I did."

There is another long moment of awkward silence.

"What—" the mayor coughs, and clears his throat. "What brings you into town on this fine summer day."

Pearl looks over at him, wrinkles her nose in distaste, turns back to the ocean.

"I heard about Buck," she says instead of answering.

The mayor opens his mouth, and then closes it again.

"Steven's been crying about it all week." Her hands come up to flutter aimlessly before her. "I keep trying to tell him that it's not the end of the world, that he has other friends," she drops her hands back into her lap. "But no," she finishes. "Apparently Beach City isn't worth living in without the 'cool kids'."

The mayor jerkily half-smiles, and turns away.

"Yes," he finally says. "I imagine word would spread fast."

He licks his lips, and swallows.

"He is my son, after all." He smiles weakly. "The next—"

He coughs.

"Well, he is still my son." He glances over at Pearl's profile, glances back at the ocean. "He's still the major's son. That's important."

After a moment, he continues.

"He could always come back! You know what they say—"

Pearl turns to glance at him, and he makes an awkward noise before looking back down at his hands.

"Well," she says, "You humans have become remarkably good at not dying, so I suppose it's not completely impossible."

The mayor makes a choked noise.

"Nothing like your great-uncle Samuel," she adds with a fluttering laugh.

She glances at the mayor's horrified expression before turning back to the ocean.

"It was a terrible tragedy. I hear Philadelphia is much safer now."

The mayor buries his face in his hands.

"Why couldn't he have chosen some closer school," he bemoans. " All the way to California—"

He shakes his head.

"It's barely even a state."

"Yes, they barely made it out of those nasty wars with the rightful owners of their land."

"Yeah," the mayor agrees. "Wait, what?"

"And Steven wants to go to high school," Pearl complains instead of answering, not looking at him. "I don't understand why, I can teach him whatever he could possibly need to know." She raises her hands with a sigh before dropping them back into her lap. "But Steven keeps insisting, and Garnet—"

Pearl glances at the mayor, eyes briefly widening, as if she forgot he was there.

"Well, you know how Garnet is."

The mayor stares back dumbly.

After a moment, Pearl gives him a pointed look, and he nods dumbly.

"And after that," Pearl continues voice rising. "He'll probably want to go to university, and maybe even get a job, and he'll be so far away, doesn't he know how dangerous that would be?"

The mayor opens his mouth to respond, but Pearl continues without pause, not even glancing over at him.

"Yes, Garnet, independence is important, but she just doesn't see how dangerous it is!" Pearl takes to her feet and stares down at the mayor, chest heaving. He attempts to smile comfortingly, and she huffs and begins to pace.

"She said the same thing about Rose, too, you know. Right when she met Greg?" Pearl throws her hands up in irritation.

"And look how that turned out."

She spins to face him.

He doesn't quite manage to take a breath before she begins pacing again.

"Well, now we have Steven, so it wasn't really so bad, but! But it could have been!" Pearl pivots, several feet past the edge of the bench, then starts walking back.

"And Steven! Oh I just now he's going to do something foolish—too much of both his mother and his father in him—and oh, he's probably going to do it with Connie—they're getting so suspicious lately, they don't think I've noticed, but I have—” another pointed glance, “—and we don't what will happen then. What if he's like Rose, I can't lose him too!"

Pearl finally comes to a stop before the mayor, staring down at him.

The mayor opens his mouth, then closes it.

Pearl continues to look down at him expectantly.

"Oh, uh..." The mayor swallows.

Licks his lips.

"I'm sure he'll be fine."

Pearl nods, turning away, and beginning to pace again.

"Yes, of course," she says. " He's perfect, after all. Got that from his mother, by the way." She gives the mayor a meaningful look.

"He's so much like her sometimes, it takes my breath away. He wants to save the world, you know, just like her."

She stops, and stares dreamily into the ocean.

"And Connie is much better than Greg."

Another pointed look.

"Anyways," she finally says, folding herself back onto the bench beside him. "I'm sure your son will be fine."

The mayor half-smiles, reaching out to rest a hand on her shoulder.

She smoothly avoids it.

"Thank—"

"He's only human, after all. And even if he does something foolish with that pizza girl, well—" she laughs under her breath, "he's already got the village, doesn't he?"

"Yeah," he smiles. "We'll always-"

"Sour Cream will make an excellent surrogate father," Pearl interrupts. "He's been raising his little brother on and off for almost five years now. And they do make such an adorable, well—whatever you humans call it."

"Wait, what?"

The mayor stares at her, face bewildered, but she continues on regardless.

"Well," she says, standing up and brushing non-existent dirt off her lap. "Anyways. Try not to cry on the boardwalk. It's very distracting. If you have to cry, please do it in private, where you won't disturb anyone else."

With that, she scoops up the plastic bag she dropped by the side of the bench, and sweeps away.

The mayor stares after her open-mouthed, before slowly turning his gaze back to the ocean and beginning to sniffle again.


End file.
